Avaya has a large R&D center in Pune – in fact, it has about 30-40% of Avaya’s total R&D team:

Pune is Avaya’s largest R&D center globally, with a large pool of talented engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs with state-of- art research lab and infrastructure. Some of the key technologies that are developed out of Pune R&D center include next-generation contact center solutions, unified communication and collaboration, solutions for medium sized businesses, including Avaya’s flagship IP Office collaboration platform, and WebRTC.

Located in Annabhau Sathe Vidyalaya on Kumthekar Road and inaugurated on Sunday, it is an example of what can be achieved when social and corporate sectors join hands. KPIT Cummins Infotech Systems Ltd and the Rotary Clubs of Pune City Sports, Kalyaninagar and Laxmi Road, have supported the effort.

The centre has special trainers for people with different disabilities. The NAWPC and Snehankit already run a computer training centre for the visually challenged, a recreational centre for the disabled and a digital library for the blind.

Rahul Deshmukh, President of both, NAWPC and Snehankit, is himself visually challenged, and faced various difficulties in his own education, and hence has taken this initiative in the hope of ensuring that others like him have it easier:

Deshmukh is visually challenged and known for his service to the disabled. He has done his MPhil in computer education for the blind. He is concerned about the physically challenged from economically weaker sections, who cannot afford education. “The training is free for the students. We are depending on donors for running the centre.” KPIT Cummins and the Rotary Clubs have generously supported the centre. The NGO runs without permanent sources of funds and is run by volunteers, said Deshmukh. The training centre has educated more than 500 people since 2003.

Pune-based Gera Developments announced that in light of the deficient rainfall, the company would shift from water-based curing to chemical curing for their current projects and would continue it till the water situation in the district improves. The move could reduce water consumption by over 25 million litres of water used for curing

“Curing” is the process by which cement concrete is soaked in water for the first few days (approximately 36 liters per square foot) in a construction site. Switching to chemical curing increases the cost of construction by 1.5 to 2% says Gera.

Amanora Park Township has a waste water treatment plant that takes used water, treats it and recycles it for flushing and gardening.

Under this project 40 M3/ day waste water from one of the sector of the township will be treated in SBR and MBR technology pilot plant up to tertiary level and used for gardening & flushing within Township.” He added the project will help them treat about 10 lakh litre of sewage water at Amanora everyday from which 7.5 lakhs will be reutilised through flush tanks and other medium thus putting less burden of water demand on civic body.

This is one of the best ways to reduce water consumption, and it would be great if more builders adopted this in their new projects.

The article also goes on to talk about how builders are adopting the over-hyped rainwater harvesting concept, which just shifts the problem without really solving it. So I’m not going to ignore that part of the article.

Nearly 300 students at MIT and Wharton used Yellowdig this spring — a tool that aims to be like Reddit for the classroom, said South Jersey-based founder Shaunak Roy. Three MBA classes at Wharton and one engineering class at MIT piloted the tool.

Yellowdig allows students to share relevant links, photos or notes with their classmates, and classmates can up-vote or down-vote links. Users can build their “influence” score by getting up-votes, posting on the platform and gaining followers.

CIOL and other news sources point out that Business Continuity Management and Disaster Recover Software Provider Perpetuuiti is expanding its R&D lab in Pune. It has managed to steal away senior storage industry people from Pune’s established storage companies like Symantec and IBM and is now looking to expand its team:

Excerpts:

The new lab is 20,000 sq.ft. in area and will help Perpetuuiti in its innovation efforts, incubating and developing Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Disaster Recovery (DR) products. The lab will be instrumental in inventing, testing, and scaling the most promising and cost effective BCM & DR solutions.

Perpetuuiti has invested US$ 1 million in the R&D centre and is expecting to generate business value worth US$ 15 million in the future. Perpetuuiti has brought on board industry stalwarts and domain experts, who have experience of working with companies like Symantec and IBM at senior position, to expedite the process of product innovation and development. The expanded R&D centre will help Perpetuuiti in developing new products and in providing value-added solutions to its existing and potential customers. It will play a critical role in developing competitive products for its global customers who are getting more refined about use of cloud, storage and virtualization.

Pune based gaming company Rolocule recently unveiled a new iPhone / Apple TV based game Dance Party, which won the Silver Edison Award for best innovation in the Entertainment category at the recent 2014 Edison Awards in San Francisco. Basically, this is a game that converts a regular iPhone into a Nintendo Wii controller, and the Apple TV into the gaming screen.

Details:

Rolomotion is a technology which precisely tracks the various movements made by an iPhone and allows users to play games using natural motion gestures on television using a combination of Apple’s smartphone and the Apple TV.

In fact, the calim is that this is even better than traditional gaming consoles:

Unlike traditional motion gaming consoles that are limited by the number of motion controllers, Dance Party lets users connect multiple iOS devices together to dance simultaneously in front of big screens like HD TV, Mac or PC using AirPlay Mirroring. The result is a great way to both have fun and stay fit. Even better, all personal statistics like calories burnt etc. of each user during multiplayer dance will stay on individual iPhones.

Mannara Technologies, a data management and business intelligence solutions and services company, today announced the setting up of its technology centre in Pune. The new facility will cater to its new and existing clients base in US and India.

The company is investing Rs 60 crore for its expansion in the city in two phases. In the first phase, Rs 30 crore will be invested for the facility in Pune. Another Rs 30 crore will be invested for further development by end of 2015.

Currently, Mannara Technologies employees 100 engineers and is planning to increase the count up to 1,000 people by end of 2018. It is raising the funds via internal accruals.

It appears that Mannara wants to target the Indian SME software market:

“The Indian market for analytics is of around $1 billion. But, the Indian industries especially, the SMEs are not using analytics or data warehousing for their businesses. There is a huge potential for this market in India. Mannara is eyeing this space of technology business in India. Also, one of the reason for this is the huge amount of data that gets produced by social media which needs management and analysis,” said Sanjay Kucheria, CEO Trinus Corporation.

The University of Pune’s School of Energy Studies has got a central grant of Rs 3 crore to set up a new research, development and testing laboratory for concentrated solar energy. The lab, once operational, will be among two labs of its kind in the country. The Solar Energy Centre in Gurgaon, Haryana, is already functional.

and, this is what the lab will focus on:

The lab will focus not only on research and development, but will also check the quality of components of concentrated solar energy systems. Concentrated solar power (CSP) systems use reflective surfaces like mirrors to concentrate a large area of solar thermal energy or sunlight into a small area. Such systems produce more electricity from heat energy as compared to conventional methods.

Xpanxion, a software services company with a significant presence in Pune has been acquired by UST-Global a software services providers for Global 100 companies.

Here are some excerpts from the press release:

“Xpanxion focuses on developing its technology services in rural areas of the US, while UST Global recently launched its Step IT Up America program to focus on growing technology skills of minority women within inner cities. In doing so, these two companies have created innovative approaches to US-based workforce development,” said Paul Eurek, CEO of Xpanxion. “By merging their professional services programs, both companies will be able to harness and capitalize upon the successes and strengths of the other.”

And more information about Xpanxion

Xpanxion, LLC, provides software development, testing, and consulting services through an integrated rural and offshore sourcing model. This strategy utilizes the work ethic and quality of professionals in rural areas and the cost-effectiveness of resources overseas, enabling our clients to operate more efficiently, bring new products to market quickly, and ultimately achieve quality, cost, and business objectives.

Pune-based security software firm Quick Heal Technologies Pvt. Ltd expects its initial public offering (IPO) to be delayed to July or August next year, as it is still preparing and finalizing audit reports and is aiming for a valuation between Rs.2,500 crore and Rs.3,000 crore.

The software product firm, which is aiming to expand outside India and launch newer products, had initially planned to go public by December this year or January next year.

“Around Rs.3,000 crore is what I’m expecting,” managing director and chief executive Kailash Katkar said in an interview. “We’re also trying to put the right team in place to manage all the financial accounting procedures and that is taking time.”